


My Sand Castle is Bigger than Yours

by PrincexofxFlowers



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beach Volleyball, Day At The Beach, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Mothman, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining with a capital 'P', This is so ridiculously fluffy, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, how ridiculous this is, i cannot believe, mentions of mermaids, sand castles, they're already dating and keith is still pining, this is ridiculous guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10028573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincexofxFlowers/pseuds/PrincexofxFlowers
Summary: Keith hated the beach. If asked to make a list of things he really really disliked it would be comprised of that jerk Sendak in his Thursday afternoon class and going to the beach. Among other things obviously. He really hated the beach.However Keith liked Lance. If asked to make a list of things he really really liked it would be comprised of Cryptids, specifically Mothman because, come on, and Lance. Among other things obviously. He really liked Lance.---Keith has had nothing but bad experiences at the beachLance is a majestic water spriteFluff ensues





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be short. It is not.  
> Also they're in college but it's not brought up enough to warrant getting tagged as a college au so just to give you an age range. There is a brief reference to Daddy Kinks but it is the lease sexual thing in the whole fic. It's like. 3 lines.

Keith hated the beach. If asked to make a list of things he really really disliked it would be comprised of that jerk Sendak in his Thursday afternoon class and going to the beach. Among other things obviously. He really hated the beach.

However Keith liked Lance. If asked to make a list of things he really really liked it would be comprised of Cryptids, specifically Mothman because, come on, and Lance. Among other things obviously. He really liked Lance.

Lance really liked the beach. Lance really really liked the beach.

So when they both finally had a free weekend and Lance suggested they make the hour and a half drive to the nearest beach with all the excitement of a child gifted with a puppy after being told multiple times that they would not be getting a pet, there were a lot of fibers in Keith’s being that screamed in agony and wanted to give a vehement ‘no.’ There were also, however, a lot of fibers in his being that melted at how cute and ridiculous his boyfriend was and wanted to just give Lance anything he wanted.

He’s really not surprised which side won.

So there Keith was, in the passenger’s seat of Lance’s car- because if he was going to the beach he was at least getting the time beforehand to do nothing but mentally prepare himself for whatever horrors awaited him- windows down music blasting obscenely loud and finding himself hopelessly happy despite how much he had been opposed to the idea of the whole trip.

Of course how could he not be happy? Lance was loudly singing along to all of his favorite music, hands drumming rhythmically on the steering wheel and every so often he would take his eyes off the road to glance at Keith with a smile bright enough to power a whole city and that look in his eyes that he usually got right before he said something sappy that made Keith’s insides go all fuzzy and, he’d never admit this, occasionally brought tears to his eyes. He was familiar with the expression. He actually was on the receiving end of it quite often as of late and he often found himself returning it in full. He felt astoundingly helpless every time it happened and he was surprised at himself the first time he realized that he wouldn’t trade the feeling for anything else on the planet. He had yet to admit that to anyone but himself of course.

“Ah heck yeah!!” Lance exclaimed over the music of the intro to the next song. Keith tuned back in to the present moment to find that Mr. Brightside had started playing. “Come on, Keith you have to sing this one!” He cranked the volume up even more.

Keith, despite his smile, opened his mouth to decline only to be interrupted.

“Nope! No no no none of that! You have to! I know you know all the words, I’ve caught you singing it before! You love this song!!”

“Says who?” Keith grinned.

“Everyone loves this song, Keith! Even if they hate it, on some subconscious level everyone still loves this song!”

Keith wanted to argue with that but the fact of the matter was that, yes, he did love this song. He also really loved the expression on Lance’s face and it was those two things that lead to him joining Lance in belting out the lyrics when they started.

“Comin’ out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine,” they yelled, “Gotta gotta be down because I want it all!”

By the time the song ended they were almost laughing too hard to sing the lyrics which was honestly just as well since halfway through they just started screaming the words out to be heard over the speakers.

Lance reached over to turn the volume back down to a reasonable level and glanced at Keith briefly, a fond smile on his face.

And there was that expression again.

“So…” Lance started. “Why don’t you like the beach?”

Keith blinked. “I didn’t say I don’t like the beach.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “No but through my genius powers of deduction I have discovered that you weren’t very keen on the idea of this whole trip. You know you could have said no right? I wouldn’t have been mad. You don’t have to do everything I say.”

Keith chose to withhold his comment about the recent revelation he had that Lance had him wrapped around his little finger and he was hard pressed to think of anything he wouldn’t do if Lance asked him to. Instead he shrugged. “I’ve just never really had good experiences at the beach.”

“Oh?” Lance sent him a curious glance and Keith sighed. He should have known he was going to have to explain.

“Okay for starters, you get sand literally everywhere and sunburns are always involved.”

Lance snorted. “That’s cause your pasty self is too stubborn to wear sunscreen. Which I brought and will be forcing you to wear by the way.”

Keith rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. “Also like, you know there could be anything in the water right?”

“Like sharks?”

“Like sea monsters,” Keith corrected. “Like the Leviathan or Giant Squid or Cthulhu or Nessie-”

“We’re in America.”

“Or those things from Pacific Rim-”

“I highly doubt we’ll be going out deep enough for half of that stuff, Keith.”

“You don’t know what Cthulhu does!”

“Has it occurred to you that you may just have a fear of tentacles?”

“Lance!”

“So that’s a ‘no?’”

Keith groaned.

“Sorry,” Lance laughed. “So sea monsters. Okay. Any other reason?”

Keith sighed. “The first time I went to the beach I got stung by a jellyfish.”

“Wait, really?”

“No I’m completely making this up.”

“Right.”

“The second time I got pinched by a crab. Twice.”

“Ouch.”

Keith nodded and started listing things off on his fingers. “Then there was the time I got caught in a wave near the shore and got road rash from sand all over my back cause I couldn’t get upright enough to stand. There was that time I fell down the stairs of one of the dressing huts and scraped my entire leg. One time a seagull ate my ice cream cone. A tiny octopus once thought my leg was an excellent thing to hug.”

Lance opened his mouth to bring up tentacles but Keith slapped a hand over it before he could make a sound. Lance licked his hand and really Keith should have been more grossed out than he was but he kept talking as he idly wiped his hand off on Lance’s cheek.

“Ew,” Lance muttered, scrunching his face up.

“And then there was that time a fish tried to eat my foot. Not a toe. Not even a few toes. My entire foot.”

Lance tried not to laugh. He wasn’t successful.

“Plus the sand and the sunburn and the sea monsters,” Keith finished.

“But Keith,” Lance started. “Mermaids.”

Keith laughed. “That’s your argument? Mermaids?”

“What?” Lance asked indignantly. “I thought it was a valid argument!”

Keith laughed more.

“Oh so Cthulhu is a legitimate concern but mermaids aren’t?”

“There’s no proof for mermaids,” Keith grinned. He was mostly just messing with Lance now.

Lance gaped at him. “Oh my gosh,” he sounded genuinely offended. “I cannot believe I am dating you right now. How dare you honestly? You come into my car, you listen to my music, and you doubt mermaids???”

Keith laughed, the grin on his face too wide to even attempt to actually say anything.

Lance was still gaping in horror but eventually he settled down into a low but good natured grumble. “Some Cryptozoologist. Spends hours watching documentaries on El Chupacabra but throw mermaids into the discussion and suddenly there’s ‘no proof.’”

Keith reached over and lightly pried one of Lance’s hands from the steering wheel. “I’m sorry,” Keith kissed his knuckles and smiled at the flush that sprang to Lance’s cheeks. “When we get back from the beach I’ll start on some mermaid research.”

Lance recovered with a dramatic scoff. “That won’t help us when I get kidnapped by mermaids today.”

“Why would mermaids kidnap you?”

“Uh. To be their king. Duh.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “And they would make you their king because…?”

“Because I believed in them when no one else would!”

Keith snorted.

“What? A good king has to have faith in his people!”

“A good king also has to have respect for other people and you’ve made fun of Mothman so much in the last month that I’ve lost count of how many times and now owe Pidge five bucks.”

“What does that say about how many Mothman documentaries you’ve watched in the last month?”

“Lance.”

“Babe, I’m just worried that if he turns out to be real and you find him, he’ll steal you away from me! How bad would that be? ‘Mothman stole my boyfriend’ I’d have to make something up! I’d also have to fight Mothman and I’d probably lose!”

“What?” Keith blinked. “You’d fight Mothman for me?”

Lance made an offended noise. “Of course I’d fight Mothman for you! I’d probably get my ass handed to me but I’d do it! At least if you had to fight a mermaid for me you’d probably win!”

There weren’t tears in Keith’s eyes. There weren’t. “Lance. That is the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Lance sent him an incredulous look. “I don’t know if I should find that you think that adorable or be offended. I say romantic things to you all the time!!”

“Yeah but…” Keith put one hand over his heart and covered his mouth with the other. “Mothman would completely demolish you and you’d still try for me.”

Lance snorted. “Mothman can meet me in the parking lot behind Walmart. I could take him. For a while. I’d still probably lose though.” He turned the car into a parking space and Keith only just noticed that they’d arrived at the beach.

Keith grabbed Lance’s hand before he could undo his seatbelt. “Nah, you wouldn’t lose. I’d be there to give you back up.”

Lance looked up at him with that expression he got when he thought Keith did something unexpectedly sweet. “Aw Keith. You’d fight Mothman for me?”

Keith caught the grin on his face before it grew into something too big to look natural. “No. I’d fight Mothman for me. For Science. But I’d fight Mothman with you. I think we’d make a pretty good team.” Without another word, he threw open his door and slid out of the car before groaning at how bright it was. “Sunglasses!” He blindly reached back inside, hand groping around for his shades.

Lance rolled his eyes and handed the glasses to him before putting his own pair on and getting out as well. “If you went outside longer than three minutes a day it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“Shut up,” Keith grumbled. He opened the trunk and started digging through the bag Lance had packed. “Where is this mythical sunscreen?”

“One second and I’ll get it.” Lance pulled his shirt over his head, leaving him in his blue swim trunks and the sandals he’d been wearing. He seemed to literally glow in the sunlight and his muscles moved fluidly with his movements.

Keith fought down a blush but was apparently unsuccessful.

“Do you really burn that fast or are you just really hot all of a sudden?” Lance seemed genuinely curious for a moment but then the truth of the situation must have dawned on him because Keith could see the smooth transition from concern to smug in a matter of seconds. “O-ho,” Lance grinned. “Maybe it’s just that I’m really hot.”

Keith rolled his eyes and went back to searching the bag. “Nope. It’s just me.”

Lance laughed and lightly bumped Keith out of the way with his hip. “Here.” He moved a few things around before finding the exact location of the sunscreen and offering it to Keith. 

“Thanks.” Keith pulled his own shirt over his head and shook his hair out before reaching for the bottle. 

Lance grinned and withheld the bottle before hopping up onto the edge of the open trunk. “I’ll do your back,” he offered.

Keith turned around and snorted to cover his face going even more red. “Gay,” he said without any heat.

Lance squirted a healthy amount of sunblock on his hands and scoffed. “You’ve kissed me like seven times today.”

“I never said I wasn’t also ga- COLD!!” he shuddered when Lance started rubbing the cold lotion onto his back without any warning. Lance whistled innocently behind him.

“Is this payback for starting the dishwasher while you were in the shower the other day?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. When you decide to do your dishes is up to you.”

Keith snorted. “Suuure.”

Lance lightly kicked the side of Keith’s calf and handed him the bottle of sunblock. “Be productive and get your front.”

Keith hummed and complied.

“We should build a sand castle later.”

Keith bit his lip against a grin and then rolled his eyes. “For a second I almost asked if you even brought stuff for sand castles but then I realized that stupid questions do exist and that was definitely one of them.”

Lance grinned and kissed him right behind his ear. “I wouldn’t have teased you too much for it.” He patted Keith’s shoulders lightly and pushed him forward a bit before hopping down. “Well your back’s good. Don’t forget to do your legs.”

“Yes, Mom,” he rolled his eyes, once again doing as Lance said.

“Huh. I had you pegged as more of a daddy kink type.”

Keith shot straight up and hurled the bottle of sunblock at Lance, face flaming and heart pounding.

Lance yelped as the bottle harmlessly bounced off of his shoulder and then dissolved into laughter. “Kidding! You know I was kidding! Oh man, your face!!”

Keith let out a frustrated sound but couldn’t bring himself to be anything more than wildly embarrassed. “We are in public!” he whispered.

Lance was still grinning as he bent to pick up the sunblock. “Sorry babe,” he kissed Keith’s nose and then shoved the bottle back into it’s place in the bag along with both of their shirts before lifting it over his shoulder. He turned and offered his free hand to Keith. “Ready?”

Keith pretended his blush wasn’t blatantly obvious and nodded, taking Lance’s hand and then biting back a smile when Lance laced their fingers together more firmly and started swinging their hands as they walked.

There was, predictably, sand everywhere and people too, neither of which Keith was very fond of but Lance just casually found a fairly empty spot and started laying out towels and setting up an umbrella. Keith turned and looked over the shoreline. Theoretically it was nice. The breeze was refreshing, the sounds were calming, and the overall aesthetic was pleasing to the eye. He still couldn’t completely shake his aversion to being there.

Lance cleared his throat and Keith turned back around to find him holding two plastic buckets and a pair of tiny plastic shovels. “Pick a bucket, any bucket.”

Keith gave a dramatic scoff. “Obviously I get the red one.”

Lance laughed and surrendered the bucket to him. “Obviously. Bet I can make a bigger sand castle than you,” he challenged.

“Loser has to make dinner?”

Lance scoffed. “Yeah right then I’d have to lose. You’re a terrible cook, and I’m not letting you anywhere near my kitchen.”

Keith sighed sadly. “You’ve seen through my ruse. And I resent that by the way. I make fantastic poptarts.”

“Keith, you literally caught your toaster on fire last time you made poptarts. That’s why you don’t have a toaster anymore.”

“It’s not my fault I didn’t notice some of the wrapper got stuck to it!”

Lance raised a skeptical eyebrow at him and walked closer to the waterline. “If that’s what makes you feel better,” he threw over his shoulder.

Keith rolled his eyes and followed after him. “Okay fine. Loser has to…” He trailed off and distractedly sat down across from Lance who had already started filling his bucket with damp sand. “Do one thing the winner asks?”

“But we usually do things we ask each other to do. You’re not very demanding.”

“You’re not that demanding either,” Keith bit his lip in thought, finally joining Lance in gathering Sand.

“Oh! I got it!” Lance grinned before rocking up on his knees and then leaning over, bracing his hands on either side of Keith’s crossed legs and getting right in his face. “A dare! Or some really outlandish request.”

Keith leaned back a bit, eyebrows furrowing. “How is that any different from my suggestion?”

“Simple. I could ask you anything mundane or easily granted. Like I could ask you to give me back my hoodie that I lent you last month that I know you still have.”

Keith cleared his throat and looked away.

“But a dare or some over the top request? I could say no mothman documentaries for a month. I could dare you to wear drag. I could tell you to get rid of your mullet-”

“You’ve already admitted that you actually like my hair!” Keith exclaimed. “You can’t take it back!”

Lance laughed. “Just an example, Keith.” He finally sat back on his shins and picked up his shovel. “But I could make you let me braid it.”

Keith didn’t say that he’d probably let Lance do that anyway. “Okay I get it. Loser owes the winner one outlandish request.”

“Sweet. Good Luck, Keith. You’re gonna need it.”

Keith did need it. What Lance lacked in knowledge of architecture, something Keith had been lowkey interested in since high school, he made up for with experience and knowledge of how to actually build a sand castle, something Keith had never successfully done before.

“The sand you’re using is too wet,” Lance laughed as Keith’s third attempt at a base melted into a pile of sludge.

“It has to be wet or it won’t stick!” Keith cried. Sand was an awful building material.

“Not that wet! You need something like this.” He quickly grabbed a handful of sand and formed it into a very rough tower. Despite all the flaws and lack of real effort, the tower stayed standing.

Keith eyed it and then Lance warily before gritting his teeth and flattening out his area and filling his bucket with drier sand.

After that he was unstoppable.

“I never should have told you my methods,” Lance grumbled darkly.

Keith shot him a cocky grin. “What? Scared now that you don’t have an advantage? What should I make you do?”

Lance scoffed. “Please. The only thing scary about you is your bedhead.”

“You think my bedhead’s adorable.”

Lance sputtered. “Scary adorable.” 

Keith blinked at him.

“That… worked out better in my head.”

Keith reached over and patted his arm. “I’m sure it did.”

They continued on in a comfortable silence for a little while after that. Once he caught Lance staring at him and he loudly proclaimed that he was ‘just checking out the competition.’ Keith would have believed him except he’d seen the soft expression on Lance’s face and it definitely wasn’t his ‘in the game’ face. After that Keith caught himself sneaking glances at Lance frequently and he had to tell himself that he was being ridiculous. They were dating. He didn’t have to sneak glances. But there was something about seeing Lance at the beach all bright eyes and glowing skin, smile so soft and so genuine that Keith had to catch his breath.

Keith opened his mouth and then realized he was going to do something embarrassing like whisper ‘beautiful’ and promptly clicked it shut again and cleared his throat. “U-um aren’t you supposed to put seashells on theses things?” He busied himself with pawing through some sand next to him.

Lance grinned at him. “So you’re not completely clueless. Technically they’re not required as not all beaches have a good selection of seashells to work with but if you do have them it’d be a waste not to use them, and I happen to know for a fact that this beach has lots of really pretty seashells.”

“Of course you do,” Keith teased. They both stood up and halfheartedly wiped off some of the sand caked to their legs. Really there was no point in the efforts though since they’d have to sit back down again to find shells and put them on their castles.

“Ha! I’m totally winning, Keith!”

“What? No you’re not! Mine’s way bigger!”

Lance opened his mouth to make a joke but Keith cut it off with a sharp look. “Okay okay I won’t say it. But my sand castle is inarguably bigger than yours!”

“It is too arguable! It’s very arguable!”

“Nu-uh! Mine’s like three inches taller than yours!”

“And mine’s a foot wider! And more structurally sound!”

“Well this isn’t a ‘structurally sound’ competition, Keith!”

“It’s still bigger!”

“Is not!”

They dissolved into an argument over whether the definition of bigger was taller or wider but they were cut off by a rogue volleyball soaring towards them.

“Watch out!” someone yelled but it was too late. The ball crashed into their sand castles, severely damaging the left wing of Keith’s and completely annihilating Lance’s. 

Keith stared in shock and Lance openly let out a scandalized noise of horror. Keith couldn’t help himself. The expression on Lance’s face was so comical and the smug grin on his face was inevitable. “Well there goes your three inch lead.”

Lance looked offended. “Ketih!”

“What was that about it not being a structurally sound competition?”

“Sorry guys!”

Keith and Lance turned to see the guy running towards them, a guilty expression on his face and Lance sent a forlorn look at his castle and then gave a sigh dramatic enough to alleviate any actual tension that could form. “It’s fine. All great things must come to an end.”

Keith snorted. “You’re only saying that because now the evidence of your loss is gone.”

“I cannot believe you would accuse me of such things.”

The stranger laughed and Keith bent and gave him his ball. “Thanks. Hey you guys wanna join? Sort of to make up for crashing your sand castles but mostly because my team is losing and we’re outnumbered.”

Lance raised an eyebrow and looked at Keith.

He shrugged. “Sure.”

“We’re in!”

Needless to say the team they joined was not losing for much longer after that. Lance and Keith really did make a good team. Sure they were competitive with each other but the only thing that rivaled their rivalry was their team work. They finished out the game they joined in the middle of and then played one more, which they also won, and then called it quits and said goodbye to their temporary teammates. 

They both trudged back to their towels, sweaty and sore, but grinning. Keith sat down on his towel and leaned back on his hands, watching as Lance unceremoniously flopped down on his own towel and promptly sprawled out in the shade of their umbrella. 

“Well that was fun,” he sighed.

“Mh-hm.” Keith had closed his eyes and was enjoying the breeze. It was still insanely hot but now that they weren’t physically exerting themselves in direct sunlight it was more bearable.

“Oh hey!” Lance launched himself back into an upright position and Keith opened his eyes to see what he was doing.

“There’s a little shack that sells snow cones a bit further down the beach,” he dug around in the bag and then emerged holding his wallet up triumphantly. 

“You brought your wallet? Someone could have taken it.”

Lance rolled his eyes and ignored the comment. “I’m gonna go grab a couple, sound good?”

“Sounds great. I’ll go grab the buckets. Before someone takes them.” 

“Oh yeah, forgot about those,” Lance said flippantly and Keith huffed out a laugh at his retreating back.

“Dweeb,” he shook his head and went to collect their stuff. He picked up their bucket and shovels and then paused to look out at the ocean. The tide rushed up over his feet. It wouldn’t be long before it overtook their sand castles. Keith looked at them for a moment, biting his lip and flexing his toes in the sand before making a decision. He ran back and dropped the buckets next to the bag before digging around in it. If Lance brought his wallet he probably also threw his phone in there somewhere. “Ah ha!” he smiled, grabbed the phone and then ran back to the sand castles. He sent a brief look in the direction Lance had walked off in and, after seeing the coast was clear, he knelt and took a few pictures of them. He checked to make sure they were good and sent them to himself before deleting the evidence. Lance didn’t need to know that he was a giant sentimental nerd. Not yet anyway.

He walked back to their stuff and put Lance’s phone back where he’d found it. Lance would never know. He was in the middle of drawing a very detailed rendition of the Loch Ness Monster in the sand when a snow cone was shoved into his line of vision.

“Blue raspberry okay?”

“Always,” Keith took the snow cone as Lance sat down on his own towel with a content sigh.

“Glad to see no one stole our buckets,” he commented idly. He took a bite of his snow cone and winked at Keith, ice crystals sticking to his lips for a moment before his tongue darted out and licked them away.

Keith swallowed down his own mouthful perhaps a bit too quickly. Holy crud. He took another bite before speaking, like a true gentleman, with his mouth full. “There’s a huge difference between finding an unattended wallet at the beach and finding two buckets next to some sand castles. How desperate do you have to be to steal plastic buckets?”

“Hey, man, some of these kids are vicious. These are some high quality buckets here.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Right.”

They sat in silence after that. Lance’s free hand resting over Keith’s and occasionally squeezing, legs straight out in front of him and feet waving from side to side to whatever beat he chose and Keith melted. He couldn’t even try to deny how far gone he was over this boy. He wouldn’t even if he could have.

“Oh hey,” he spoke up when he was almost done with his snow cone. “I brought a frisbee too if you want to play. We could see if those people playing volley ball are still here and get them in on it too.” He downed the rest of his snow cone and held the paper cup in his teeth, dragging the bag over to him and digging through it for the disc.

Keith stared at him for a moment, brow furrowed. “Don’t you want to swim?” 

Lance looked up at him. “Huh?” he didn’t bother moving the cup.

“We’ve been here for hours and you’ve barely put your feet in the water. Don’t you want to swim?”

Lance took the cup from between his teeth. “But you don’t want to.”

“What?”

“I’m the one who wanted to come here, it’d be pretty crappy of me to just leave you here to go swimming. I don’t want you to get bored or anything. Besides I’m fine not swimming. It’s nice to just hang out with you.”

Keith bit back the, frankly, sappy smile that was trying to grow on his face. “Lance I’m fine. I know how much you love the ocean, I’m not gonna be mad if you go swimming.”

Lance hesitated. “But what would you do?”

Keith shrugged. “Read. Sleep. I could look for seashells. If I get really desperate I could go find those volley ball players.”

Lance laughed at that but then his smile grew softer and Keith had to bite his cheek at the blatant affection on his face. “Are you sure? I really don’t mind not swimming.”

Keith took Lance’s empty paper cup from him. “Go. Swim. Be with your people.”

Lance grinned and pushed some of Keith’s hair out of his face before dropping a warm kiss on his mouth. Their lips were sticky and sweet and Keith could feel Lance trying to hold back a smile. “You’re the best.” He got up and ran toward the water.

Keith ran a hand through his hair to fix it and called after him. “You have to come back though! None of this mermaid king nonsense! I’m not ready to move to Atlantis!”

Lance turned around and shot him a thumbs up, walking backwards, giant grin in place and waves splashing up behind him to lap at his legs. The sun was starting to think about setting and the light coming from behind him caught Lance’s hair on fire, the brown blazing bright copper. Then Lance turned and threw himself into the waist deep water and the moment should have ended but it didn’t. Lance was still there, ridiculously pretty and now looking somehow even more at home in his element than he had before and Keith had to pause and take a few deep breaths. After a moment of blatant staring during which he tried to come to terms, again, with how beautiful his boyfriend was, he finished his snow cone and then went to go find a trash can.

“Okay so Lance is pretty. That’s not new. Lance has always been pretty, and sweet, and ridiculously selfless. This is all stuff you already knew. Get a grip, Keith, it’s not like this is your first date with him. The man cries during horror movies for crying out loud, he’s not that-” Keith stopped. While he’d been gone Lance had been accosted by a gaggle of small children who were all showing off their floating and swimming skills. He was too far away to hear anything they were actually saying but Keith knew that smile. He knew that Lance was taking the time to genuinely praise each one of them and give them pointers and make them laugh. Keith wasn’t big on kids, didn’t really like them if he had to give a solid answer, but Lance was a saint with them and it made Keith weak in the knees every time he saw Lance interacting with them. 

The kids swam away and Lance looked up and waved enthusiastically at him. Keith smiled, he doubted lance could even see it from that far out, and gave a small wave back. Lance grinned and then swam a little ways away. The sky was starting to turn orange now, pink and purple beginning to sneak in and Keith may not like the beach but he couldn’t deny that it was beautiful. He watched Lance swim for a moment longer and then continued back to their things and grabbed a bucket and his shirt. With the sun setting the temperature also dropped a bit and Keith appreciated the extra layer between his skin and the breeze.

He made his way back to the shoreline and idly looked for seashells. This late in the day all of the really big ones had already been taken but Keith was okay with that. It wasn’t long before he had a decent collection going, comprised mostly of broken or weirdly shaped shells. Some of them had spots and some had faint stripes and they were mostly a faint pink or dusty purple color but, Lance was right, they were pretty. He had almost a whole bucket full when he looked up to locate Lance again. 

Lance was swimming back towards the shore and Keith, after a moment of hesitation, sat his bucket down and then started wading out to meet him. He was almost up to his knees in water when Lance deemed himself close enough to stand up and walk instead of swim and Keith’s jaw dropped.

He was glowing. Light glinted off the water dripping down his body and his hair was a tousled mess. His eyes were bright and his smile was as big as Keith had ever seen it and he was beautiful. He was beautiful and bright and more than Keith felt like he could ever deserve.

“Look at you being brave,” Lance pushed his hand through his hair, saltwater helping to stick it back out of his face. “You know there could be anything in the water, right?”

“Holy crud,” Keith breathed. He didn’t think he’d spoken loud enough for Lance to hear, he was still fair ways away, but Lance stopped short.

“What?”

“I am so gay.”

“What?” Lance looked perplexed.

“I am so freakin gay.”

“Keith, we’ve been dating for almost two years.” He sounded amused.

Keith blushed, the fire in his cheeks highlighted by the orange sunset. “I-I know but you- I just- you’re so-,” Keith sputtered, fisting his hands in the sides of his swim trunks. 

Lance raised an eyebrow at him, smile not faltering. “I’m so…?”

Keith gulped and looked away for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He took a deep breath and then looked back to Lance. “That outlandish request,” he started. “I know what I pick.”

“We never actually decided a winner you know but I still say-”

“Lance,” Keith said. He heard the desperate note in his voice and Lance must have too because he stopped talking and gave Keith his full attention. “Move in with me.”

Lance’s jaw dropped then. “What?” he asked after a moment.

Keith straightened his shoulders and spoke more firmly this time. “Move in with me. The lease on your apartment is almost up soon, right? Move in with me then. And when my lease is up we can- we can move somewhere closer to here. To the beach.”

“But… You hate the beach.” Lance spoke softly, like if he spoke louder than the water swirling around them the whole thing would fall apart and they’d never get the moment back.

“But you love the beach,” Keith said. “And I… I love you. And seeing you here today really…” Keith gave up trying to finish that sentence. He cleared his throat and looked Lance directly in the eyes. “Move in with me, Lance.”

Lance looked like he was going to cry. Keith could relate. The moment stretched on for a few seconds that felt like an entire lifetime to Keith and he was debating opening his mouth to add a ‘please’ but then Lance really did start crying but he was also smiling and Keith absently thought that ‘of course Lance even looks pretty now.’

Lance nodded and ran towards him, throwing his arms around Keith when he was close enough and sending them both splashing down into the surf. “Yes! Yes yes yes! Keith, you wonderful man, yes!” he cried and then he kissed Keith soundly, one hand carding through his hair and the other gripping the back of his now soaked shirt.

Keith smiled into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Lance, pulling him further into his lap and kissing him back for all he was worth.

“Yes,” Lance whispered again when they broke apart. “I love you too. Yes.”

Keith laughed and kissed Lance again. He tasted like saltwater and Keith looked forward to getting used to that in the future.

“I love you,” he said again, because he could do that now. “I love you so much, Lance.”

Lance laughed and nodded, pressing kisses to Keith’s cheeks, forehead, nose. “I love you too, Keith,” and then he kissed him again.

Keith hated the beach- had never really had good experiences at the beach. But he loved Lance and Lance loved the beach and this one moment in time, this one really-really- good, even- dare he say it- perfect day at the beach more than made up for any other bad experiences he’d had before and as he sat there, waves rushing in around him and Lance in his lap he couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay okay okay! So Keith totally gets a picture of their sand castle printed out on like a canvas and then glues his seashells to the frame and hangs it up in their new apartment as a surprise for Lance and Lance cries and it's beautiful. Also Keith does eventually learn to love the beach but he still prefers looking for seashells as opposed to swimming. (But he still does go swimming with Lance)
> 
> Okay. I really don't have a lot to say other than that. Thank you for reading!!


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